“Try saying it isn’t very good to five hundred million watches, Stel.” Madi smirked.
“Holy shit.” My eyes dropped to the ‘watched’ numbers, and sure enough, 529,564,311 people had watched my woman sing with her eyes closed, blonde hair cascading over her shoulder, and the hauntiest, sexiest, most perfect melody falling from her lips, all while she played the piano.
She can play the piano?
The moment I pressed play, the outside world didn’t matter.
Only Estelle.
Only her.
Goosebumps broke over my skin as the music soaked into my brain.
How could such random stringed-together sentences be so life changing? How could they make me love her any more than I already did?
She owned my heart completely.
What else could I give her but my soul?
By the time the song finished, Estelle trembled.
Why did she tremble?
From embarrassment?
From fear that I wouldn’t like it?
Whatever the reason, I couldn’t stand the emotional distance between us.
She needed to know how much I valued her, worshipped her.
How much I would bow to her every damn day of my life.
Handing back the cell-phone to Madi, I grabbed Estelle and hauled her into my arms. She gasped as she landed hard against my chest. “I love you.” Fisting my hands in her hair, I kissed her hard, fast, and entirely inappropriately in front of an audience.
But I didn’t care.
This woman was magic.
This woman was mine.
As Estelle’s tongue met mine, a burst of perfume filled my nose.
Madi hovered next to us, grinning like a demented cat. “Aww, that’s cute.” Pecking my cheek, she kissed Estelle before giving a cheeky wave. “I’ll leave you two lovebirds alone. You sound like you have a lot to discuss. Money being one of them.” She cackled. “I’ll be expecting a full report on the marriage and anything else you haven’t told me by the time I come back tomorrow night.”
Estelle smiled, her lips glistening from my kiss. “You mean, I have to tell you about our daughter, too?”
I choked. “Wow, what a way to dump it on her.”
“What did you just say?” Madi’s eyes turned to sniper scopes. “Can you repeat that, please?”
Estelle beamed. “What? You mean the bit about Galloway knocking me up and me giving birth on an island? Or the bit that we have a two-year-old daughter?”
Madi squealed in a perfect imitation of Coco. “Oh, my God! Where? Can I see? Where is she?”
My eyes flickered to the closed bedroom door. No doubt Coco would be awake now after that squeal-fest.
However, Estelle wriggled out of my arms and hauled her friend to the door. “Tomorrow, oh so eager aunt.”
“I’m an aunt?”
“You’re anything you want to be.”
“You’d better be prepared for an interrogation tomorrow, Stel. You’ve been a seriously bad friend to leave all of this out.”
“I promise to give you day by day updates.”
“Starting with what the hell you were doing flying in the middle of a thunderstorm when you’d claimed you didn’t want to go to Bora Bora with me?”
Estelle groaned. “Don’t make me feel guiltily for wanting my own space.”
“I can and I will. It’s my right as your best friend who was left behind to run your dead existence.”
Estelle stiffened. “You're right.”
“Of course, I’m right. I’m always right.” Madi paused with her hand on the doorknob. “Wait, what am I right about?”
“My dead existence. I’m officially no longer alive. All that money, the recording deal...that’s in the trust with the lawyer and you’re now the beneficiary. That money isn’t mine.”
Madi snorted. “Pfft, I’m only safe-keeping it for you, douche canoe. Every penny is yours. You earned it.”
“No, you earned it,” Estelle argued. “What you did for me. The apartment. The moving. Shovel Face. Madi...thank you so much.”
Joking turned serious as the two women hugged.
“Don’t mention it.” Madi kissed her. “You’ll pay me back by introducing me to my niece tomorrow.”
Breaking apart, Madi opened the door. “Bye, Galloway. I expect you to actually contribute to the next conversation. It was like having a stray eavesdropping today.”
I shoved my hands in my pockets. “A stray?”
“Yep. Estelle found you and brought you home. That’s normally what a stray is.” Winking, she added, “Cheerio. Have fun arguing about who gets to buy the mansion.”
Estelle closed the door as Madi skipped into the corridor.
She sighed under her breath. “She’s never been any different. I used to grow tired watching her buzz around like a wind-up squirrel, but now, now I find it energizing.”
“She’s something else, I agree.”
“Best intentions, though.”
“Oh, I have no doubt.” I lowered my jaw, watching her beneath hooded eyes. “I can’t say the same for my intentions, however.” The fact that our kiss had been interrupted wasn’t forgotten by my lips or my semi-hard erection.
Estelle slinked over the tiles, slotting herself back into my arms. “Your intentions?”